


together in our soft new world

by katsumi



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fluff, Minor Chirrut Îmwe/Baze Malbus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 10:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10384617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katsumi/pseuds/katsumi
Summary: Cassian knows that Jyn can handle herself in a bar fight. That still doesn't mean he wants her tostarta bar fight. This is their day off.(It might be out of his hands.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> So all these Rogue One gifs started flowing in over the weekend and violently assaulted me with their deaths all over again? So I felt a compulsive need to write more "look they're all happy and together" fix-it fluff because we all need denial.

Jyn’s about three drinks in—not that Cassian has been counting—and while she’s not the kind of person who requires any alcohol to start a bar fight, it’s looking like three drinks will greatly up the chances.

 

The man whose face is about to get punched (seriously any minute now) is snarly and broad, though overall not terribly threatening. He’s swaying on his feet as he argues with Jyn about something Cassian can’t quite make out, and it’s clear that if this disagreement were to go south, Jyn—even three-drinks-deep Jyn—could take him, easily.

 

(Her standard move is a knee to the groin which, regrettably, Cassian can confirm is very effective.)

 

Still, this was supposed to be a night off for some much-needed relaxation, and bar fights generally aren’t conducive with relaxation. Not to mention they’re trying to stay under the radar and not draw attention to themselves.

 

Plus, if Jyn is fighting someone, he is fighting someone. That’s just the way it works.

 

He sets his drink down, preparing to push up out of the booth when a large hand closes around his forearm.

 

“I know what you’re doing,” Baze chuckles.

 

Cassian turns to face him, shoots a quick look at Bodhi seated opposite them. Bodhi shrugs, mouth still closed around his straw.

 

“What am I doing?” Cassian asks Baze.

 

“You’re trying to stop the little one,” Baze cocks his head towards the bar, where Jyn has not pushed herself to her tiptoes to more convincingly argue, “from doing something stupid.”

 

_Yes_ , Cassian wants to say. _That is what I spend most of my time doing._

 

“She shouldn’t fight,” he says, instead. “Not here. She can blow off steam some other way.”

 

Baze smiles, so wide and soft it’s almost alarming. (Baze, Cassian notes, is much further than three drinks in.)

 

“Do you have a plan?” Baze asks.

 

“A plan?”

 

“To calm her down. You can’t just tell her not to fight.”

 

“I know,” says Cassian, despite the fact that this had been exactly what he was planning to do.

 

Luckily, Bodhi steps in and asks, “Why not?”

 

Baze gives a rumbling laugh. “That will make her want to fight more. Trust me. I know.” His eyes shift, and Cassian’s follow them across the room to where Chirrut is talking with a Falleen, head thrown back in laughter.

 

“You have experience with this,” Cassian surmises.

 

“Decades worth,” says Baze, with that tilt of a smile he makes when he is pretending to be exasperated but is actually feeling fond. He smiles like this more often than he probably realizes.

 

“Um,” Bodhi interjects, “she’s, uh—escalating?”

 

Cassian cranes his neck back to the bar, and sure enough: Jyn’s got her index finger hovering just below the man’s nose and is muttering something Cassian can only assume is a string of colorful language. But then the finger drops, and neither party has lunged forward, and Cassian can take a breath again.

 

“So what do I do?” he asks Baze, gaze still focus on Jyn, arms now crossed over her ribs.

 

“You distract her,” says Baze. “Tell her you need to talk about something. Lead her away.”

 

“That makes sense,” says Bodhi. “Need help?”

 

Cassian smiles, still facing away so Bodhi can’t see. Bodhi’s many things—a skilled pilot, a talented mechanic, a tempered voice of reason they all sorely need—but he’s not at all the person Cassian wants backing him up in a bar fight. Bodhi’s not taking a fist to the face on his account.

 

“I’ve got it,” he says, pushing to his feet. “Thanks.”

 

He’s only halfway across the bar when, before he can even register it’s happening, Chirrut steps in front of him, cutting off his path.

 

“Chirrut?”

 

Chirrut smiles, turning to face him. “Oh, Cassian, is that you?”

 

The step he took was far too deliberate for this to be an accident, but Cassian doesn’t have time to argue.

 

“What do you need, Chirrut?”

 

“I know what you’re doing.”

 

“What am I doing?”

 

“You’re trying to distract Jyn to keep her from fighting.” At Cassian’s blank stare, Chirrut smiles. “I can hear her shouting with someone. She’s very loud.”

 

“Uh,” says Cassian, thoroughly unprepared for this, “yes. I was going to—”

 

“It won’t work.”

 

Cassian frowns. “But Baze said—”

 

“That he distracts me?” Chirrut laughs and claps him on the shoulder so hard, Cassian has to bite back a wince. “My friend, did you not consider that perhaps that’s what I let him think?”

 

Cassian hadn’t considered that, which in hindsight seems ridiculous because that’s exactly the sort of thing Chirrut would do. But he doesn’t have the time to focus on this, now—behind Chirrut’s shoulder, Cassian can see that Jyn is back on her tiptoes again, and the man’s gestures are growing increasingly animated. Cassian steps forward.

 

“I need to—”

 

“Just stand there,” says Chirrut.

 

Cassian stops. “What?”

 

“Not here.” Chirrut’s smile is infuriating. “There. Next to her. Just stand there.”

 

“What is that supposed to do?”

 

But Chirrut’s patting him, shoving him along. “Go, go!”

 

And then Cassian’s stumbling up to Jyn, practically colliding with her side. She breaks off mid-shout to glance at him, and he straightens up, takes a small step back.

 

She raises an eyebrow.

 

“Uh,” says Cassian, rather anticlimactically, “hello.”

 

“Hi.” She’s still staring, eyes narrowed and sharp. A long beat passes. “Can I help you?”

 

“No. I’m just going to...stand here.”

 

Force, this was a stupid plan. Maybe Chirrut’s just fucking with him.

 

“Who the hell are you?” the angry man growls. Any restraint he’s been showing with Jyn clearly does not extend to Cassian, because he takes a step in Cassian’s direction, his hand clenching into a fist.

 

Lightning fast, Jyn slides between them.

 

“Back off,” she snaps. Cassian’s heart does a strange little flutter in his chest, both touched by the gesture and appalled that his presence seems to be starting the very fight he’d meant to dissuade.

 

“You wanna make me?” the man says, with such open derision that Cassian fully expects Jyn to surge forward. So he’s taken quite off guard when instead she steps back, bumps against him.

 

“Back off,” she says again. Then her hand has latched around Cassian’s wrist and she’s spinning away, tugging him with her. Cassian glances back over his shoulder, but it seems that walking in a straight line is too big an effort for the surly man, who has slumped back against the bar with a scowl.

 

“What were you even arguing about?” Cassian whispers.

 

“He said something rude,” says Jyn. “So I said some rude things back.”

 

Cassian doesn’t want to encourage her, he really doesn’t. But he can’t hold back a bark of laughter.

 

“Everything okay?” Bodhi asks, as they make it back to the table. He slides over in the booth, gesturing for Jyn to come sit next to him, which she readily does. Now that Chirrut has returned and taken his seat next to Baze, the most available space is on Jyn’s other side. But it’s not much space at all—when he takes it, he finds himself pressed against Jyn, thigh to thigh.

 

“It’s fine,” Jyn says, shrugging. She reaches over and snags Cassian’s drink, taking a long sip. Cassian is glad she’s concentrating on something else, because if she looked up she would see Baze and Chirrut beaming at her like parents who successfully house trained their puppy.

 

“Get your own drink,” says Cassian, more on principle than out of anger.

 

“I tried,” Jyn says. “Left it at the bar.”

 

“You want some of mine?” Bodhi asks, already pushing his drink towards her.

 

“No thanks,” says Jyn, hand still curled around Cassian’s glass. “I’m good.”

 

Cassian doesn’t bother arguing, perhaps because he’s a touch distracted by the firm weight of her shoulder, by the way she knocks her foot lightly against his.

 

He swallows. When he looks up, Baze and Chirrut are still grinning away.

 

_Stop it_ , Cassian mouths.

 

They don’t, of course. Chirrut, who shouldn't have been able to read Cassian's lips, smiles even wider, like a challenge.

 

Cassian didn’t know what else he was expecting.

 

* * *

 

Later, as they wind through empty, torch-lit streets on the way back to the ship, Chirrut falls in step with Cassian at the back of the group.

 

“Did you have a pleasant evening, Captain?” he asks, tapping his staff rhythmically against the ground in front of them.

 

Cassian blinks, pulls his attention to the man beside him. “Yes, I did.”

 

“As did I. And it was a peaceful evening, as well.” Chirrut lifts his staff to gesture ahead. Jyn is walking with her arm slung across Bodhi’s shoulder (even though he’s too tall for it to possibly be comfortable) and Baze is trailing behind them, keeping watch to make sure they don’t tip sideways.

 

Warmth blossoms across his chest, a feeling that is growing less and less unusual each passing day.

 

“Yeah,” he agrees. And then, because he’s curious and more than a little tired: “I didn’t think your plan would work.”

 

Chirrut just laughs.

 

“Seriously. I just stood there. I don’t see why that would have any effect.”

 

“Cassian,” Chirrut interrupts. “Take it from someone who has often been on the other side of this particular situation. You would take a punch for Jyn?”

 

“Yes,” Cassian says, immediate. It’s not even a question. He would take a shot for Jyn without a moment’s hesitation. It’s been this way since nearly the moment they met.

 

“Well,” says Chirrut, with gentle patience. “That’s why.”

 

Even without the remnants of alcohol still in his system, Cassian would have trouble processing that statement. He’s quiet for so long that Chirrut reaches out for him, pats his shoulder.

 

“Your safety is not worth the risk,” he says, quiet.

 

“Oh,” Cassian manages.

 

Chirrut’s smile is deep and warm. “Quite a strange and miraculous thing, isn’t it?”

 

Cassian doesn't ask for clarification. He just looks forward to where Jyn is reaching up to try to grab Bodhi’s goggles while he halfheartedly tries to swat her away.

 

“Yeah,” Cassian breathes. “It is.”

 

* * *

 

Later still, when they’re back on board and have filled a grumpier-than-usual K2 in on the evening’s activities, Jyn lays her sleeping mat down in its spot beside his and knocks her elbow into his side.

 

“Feeling relaxed?” she asks.

 

Cassian is fairly certain he hasn’t felt _relaxed_ since before he could walk, but there’s a strange tranquility to this evening, a fuzzy glow he wishes would linger a little longer.

 

“Sure,” he says. “You?”

 

“We should do that more often,” says Jyn. And he’s not sure if it’s the drowsiness setting in, or the liquor, or perhaps something else entirely, but for just a moment, she rests her head against his shoulder. He tries to keep as still as possible, to not shake her off.

 

“Go drinking?” he asks.

 

“We should try to relax,” she says, quiet. “Try to live.”

 

He allows himself the momentary weakness of tilting his head to rest against hers.

 

“Yeah. We should.”

 

“I think you mean _we will_ ,” she corrects, and he can hear the smile in her voice even if he can’t see it.

 

When he chuckles, it doesn’t dislodge her. If anything, she nestles in firmer against his side. He closes his eyes, tries to capture this feeling so strange and thunderous in his chest.

 

“Okay,” he agrees. “We will.”

**Author's Note:**

> and they all lived happily ever after the eennnddd~~~~~
> 
> [leralynne](http://leralynne.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you want to come say hi :)


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